Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau shuffled his lineup, switched goaltenders and then watched as his boldest move of the second-round playoff series against the Kings nearly blew up in his face. If the Ducks were down, they sure weren’t going out without a fight.

Desperate times, desperate measures.

The Ducks took a season-extending 3-2 victory from the Kings in Game 3 and narrowed their gap in the best-of-7 series to two games to one Thursday night at Staples Center. Game 4 is Saturday at Staples and Game 5, now necessary, will be Monday at the Honda Center.

Corey Perry scored a power-play goal in the first period, Teemu Selanne had a man-advantage tally in the second and Ben Lovejoy scored what proved the be the game-winner in the third as the Ducks survived the loss of goalie Frederik Andersen to an apparent leg injury with 9:58 left.

Jonas Hiller replaced Andersen and stopped seven of eight shots for his first victory in the series after a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 1 and a 3-1 defeat in Game 2. Boudreau gave Andersen the start for Game 3, surprising Hiller with the news at the team’s morning skate.

“You definitely follow the game, but you definitely are in a more relaxed situation than when you’re on the ice,” Hiller said of starting the game on the bench.

“You’re trying not to get hit by the pucks, so you’re into it, but at a different level than if you’re playing. You have to find a way to flip the switch. I was happy to come up with a few good saves.”

The Kings’ Mike Richards beat Hiller with a midair redirection in the game’s final minute, trimming the Ducks’ lead to 3-2. Jeff Carter scored a power-play goal early in the second period off Andersen, lifting the Kings into an all-too-brief 1-all tie.

Advertisement

“We have a lot of confidence in both of those guys,” Lovejoy said of Hiller and Andersen. “We count on those guys. We defend with six guys. They are there to bail out our mistakes. … We knew this was a must-win game. To go down 3-0 is almost a death wish.

Boudreau wasn’t in a status quo state of mind with his team trailing the Kings two games to none as the series shifted to Staples Center for Game 3. He inserted forward Kyle Palmieri and defenseman Sami Vatanen into the lineup in favor of Emerson Etem and Mark Fistric.

The Ducks’ sense of urgency was difficult to miss. Perry put them ahead with his first goal of the series, off a tic-tac-toe passing sequence. Ryan Getzlaf passed the puck from the perimeter to Patrick Maroon near the right goal post and Maroon fed it to Perry in the slot.

Carter’s goal came off an identical set-up with Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik assisting.

“It’s not what we want to do,” Carter said of being forced to rally after Perry’s early goal. “We want to go out and play with the lead every time we go out there.”

Selanne then put the Ducks ahead to stay with his 44th career playoff goal. He skated hard to the net down the right wing and tapped a cross-ice pass from Nick Bonino past Jonathan Quick to cap a two-on-one break with a power play about to expire.

“We knew they’d come out and play their best hockey because that’s a borderline knockout punch,” Lovejoy said. “We wanted to come out and play a complete game and tonight we did. It feels good to, hopefully, put a seed of doubt in their mind that the Ducks are coming.”